Watch live: In appeal hearing over emergency manager, Detroit City Council looks to ‘set the record straight’

Gov. Rick Snyder announces in a March 1 forum that he intends to appoint an emergency financial manger in Detroit. City Council is appealing the state's finding that the city is in financial emergency, with a 10 a.m. March 12 hearing.(Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

DETROIT, MI – City Council members don't necessarily expect an appeal hearing in Lansing this morning to prevent the appointment of an emergency manger, but they hope to "set the record straight" and air some of their grievances with the state.

Councilman Ken Cockrel, Jr. last week pointed out that because Michigan’s new financial emergency law doesn't go into effect until later this month, Detroit won’t benefit from certain options the legislation gives local governments, but will be subject to the broader powers it grants a state appointee.

Cockrel called on the governor to delay an appointment until after the law goes into effect, a move that would give Detroit's own elected officials the choice of bringing in an emergency manger, continuing a consent agreement with the state, mediation or bankruptcy.

"Why not wait so that you at least are supporting some level or some semblance of Democracy?" he asked during a WDET interview. "...We know that there is a financial crisis. But the question is: What's the best way to go about resolving it and whether or not the governor is maybe pulling the trigger a little too soon by sending in an emergency manager at this stage."

Snyder intends to appoint the manager before the law goes into effect March 27, after which the appointee will have sweeping powers including the ability to void or modify union contracts and sell city assets.

Cockrel said its unlikely the council will be able to change the governor's mind, but that the hearing has value in allowing council members to express their concerns on the record.

"Some of the other that were also in the financial review team's report -- it talks about $14 billion in long-term liabilities," Cockrel said. "Over half of those long-term liabilities are actually in the water and sewerage department, which is a separate enterprise agency, separate from the city of Detroit general fund…

"There’s a strong possibility that regardless of what council is doing, You’re going to see an emergency manger in here. I think it probably is a done deal. I do think that the governor is going to do what he’s going to to do."

Councilman James Tate echoed some of Cockrel's sentiments in another interview.

"I think we’re full-steam ahead headed toward an emergency manger," he told WJR. "... There’s no way at all that the city of Detroit right now can right our financial situation by ourselves. But we also have to make sure that when we have the discussion about what this assistance looks like, that there’s details… and that’s what we have not been able to be provided."

Mayor Dave Bing last week announced that though he opposes a state takeover and questions some of the state's findings on the city's financial struggles, he won't be part of the Council's appeal. He said he wants to avoid fighting the state and instead work closely with an emergency manager.

Activists against a state takeover have staged multiple protests, slowing traffic on major Detroit highways in at least two demonstrations and asking for federal intervention in a third gathering outside a U.S. Department of Justice building.

Cockrel said he hopes to simply voice the city's grievances on the record in the Tuesday hearing and the court action against the state is a possible step the council could take later.

"It does give council an opportunity to go on the record with respect to a number of facts that we think, in some cases, have been either omitted from the financial review team’s report or maybe have been mischaracterized," he said. "It's an opportunity to maybe set the record straight...

“A lot of the folks are saying this (emergency manager appointment is going to be like the second coming of Jesus Christ.

"Well, you know, maybe they’ll be proven right and maybe it will be a good thing, but the one thing to consider as well is if this thing goes south, you can’t vote an emergency manager out. They’re only accountable to one thing and that’s the governor. “